Today, I am grateful for work.

Every 24 hour day there’s my “mama’s work”- managing the home that daddy is out laboring to provide for. From the moment my feet touch the ground to the last tired sigh as I lie down in my soft, warm bed there’s educating and cleaning, and taxiing and laundry and business phone calls, appointments, nursing sick kids, repairs, plunging toilets, yard work and never ending cooking to fill hungry tummies. It’s a flurry of activity with a to-do list that often feels like it’s growing as rapidly as the national debt. But it is also a gift. I get to model and shape these not so little anymore girls, to train them to be skilled in the work that makes a house a home, to train them to persevere in the mundane dailies of life, to put one step in front of the other even when I don’t feel like it because our most significant work is often accomplished in perseverance.

Then there’s the income-generating category of work.
I am grateful for that first music class that I attended 18 years ago with my own sweet little munchkin. We sat together on the floor in a big circle. She leaned in close unsure and a bit fearful. But within 45 minutes, we’d bounced and rocked and danced and cuddled, laughed and played. Apparently, the teacher could see we were enjoying ourselves because when she took an unanticipated medical leave of absence, she offered me her job. Now, almost 2 decades later, I have been privileged to partner with hundreds of young families—to be their first teacher, introduce them to music and to coach them as they develop intentional connection with their babies and toddlers. Thank you God that you’ve given me rewarding and meaningful employment.

You’ve said to enjoy our work, to find satisfaction as we work hard at whatever you give us to do. I am grateful for purposeful tasks to set my hand to each day of this brief life that I am gifted with.